The Lone Star State boasts the sixth-highest number of minimum wage workers and the second-lowest wage rate for hourly workers. The 287,000 minimum wage workers in Texas live closer to the brink of poverty than a living age. It's time for Texas to raise the minimum wage to protect workers and ensure that they live a life without poverty. I completely agree with one of my colleague's blog "TEXAS SHOULD RAISE ITS MINIMUM WAGE."
Free market crusader and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott argues a minimum wage hike would kill Texan jobs. According to me, moderate raises in the minimum wage have no adverse effect on employment or worker hours. In fact, states that raised the minimum wage in 2014 actually saw faster job creation than states that kept their wage flat. Moreover, a living wage of $10.10 would directly impact almost 2 million Texans and provide a $ 3.1 billion boosts to the state's GDP.
Ultimately, a minimum wage raise would target the poorest families, alleviate the burdens of high rent, reduce the cost of government welfare programs, garner bipartisan support among Texans, improve education outcomes, and reduce the consumption of nutrition-poor food. Thus, by raising minimum wage, Texas could get benefit and workers might get out of poverty living a better life.
